One of the peoples who have long been inhabiting the Nizhny Novgorod region are the Mari. The Mari ethnic group inhabited these lands much earlier than the Russians, about four thousand years ago.
Currently, the region is home to about eight thousand representatives of the nationality, and many of them still adhere to ancient pagan beliefs. In addition, many Mari, as they sometimes call themselves, even among those who preach Christianity or atheism, continue to worship ancient shrines for cultural reasons, thus preserving the original traditions of their ancestors.
History of objects
Mari beliefs are mostly wildlife worship. Living in a wooded area rich in water bodies, people considered trees to be one of the most revered objects. Mari brought them sacrifices and gifts, protected them as higher beings, as monuments and as repositories of the spirits of their ancestors. A manifestation of these traditions are the sacred groves, still revered until now, of which there are many located in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
These are unique objects, in some of which, cultural and religious rites are still held, and pagan holidays are celebrated. Groves are considered places of power, allowing you to get in touch with spirits and other higher beings in order to ask for their protection and patronage. Sometimes individual trees are worshiped as monuments to certain events or keepers of some secrets. It happened that whole groves were also the object of worship, being the guardians of the spirit of the tribes, and later of the nearby settlements. There is documentary evidence of a symbolic transaction for the sale of a sacred grove between Mari villages, which took place already in the twentieth century. Often, even having adopted Christianity, the Mari continued to use the same places for prayer in the sacred groves, placing candlesticks on the stumps, and performing rituals in the forest, as in a temple.
Sacred sites are carefully guarded from human interference. When visiting them, in no case should you litter, break something or take out something. It is forbidden to pick mushrooms and berries, hunt, collect brushwood there. For making ritual fires on holidays, they bring firewood with them. Thanks to this attitude, the groves remain pieces of virgin nature, with an intact ecosystem, and mature trees.
How to see the Sacred Groves
For those wishing to visit one of these places, the Tsepelskaya Sacred Grove, which is located not far from Vasilsursk, is suitable. The grove is still a sacred place for the Mari. The cards carry out their rituals here to this day. Less than a kilometer southeast of the outskirts of the village, there is this forest, with an area of about four thousand square meters. Here grow oaks, lindens and birches over a hundred years old, just like those worshiped by the Mari before the arrival of the Russians. The grove is rich in rare plants.
The day when the most ambitious events of the pagans take place is the eleventh of September. The Mari offer sacrifices and leave gifts to their deities and spirits. The most famous of them are Shochinava, Poro Osh Kugu Yumo and Mland-Ava. Most often, the Mari bring here special scarves, money and bread.
In the middle of the Csepel Grove, the opposite key beats. It is called so because it flows in the opposite direction to the Volga and Sura rivers. According to the Mari legends, an ancient spirit dwells in it, to whom coins are brought and thrown into the water. They can be seen when visiting the shrine.
The source is revered not only by pagans, but also by Christians. He is always well-groomed and decorated with colorful ribbons. The Khmelevskaya pine tree grows not far from the opposite key. Its height is more than twenty-five meters, and the trunk diameter is almost a meter. Since 1996, it has been protected by the state as a natural monument.